Judge orders psychiatric exam for JetBlue pilot

(CNN) — A JetBlue pilot charged with interfering with a flight after an apparent midair meltdown last week will undergo a psychiatric evaluation to see whether he is mentally competent to stand trial.

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered authorities to take pilot Clayton Osbon to a federal hospital for prisoners for testing to determine his competency and his “sanity or lack thereof at the time of the commission of the alleged offense.”

The order could be the first step to divert the case from the criminal justice system to the health system.

The judge also postponed a court hearing scheduled for Thursday morning until Monday morning.

In a court filing, prosecutors said “there is reasonable cause to believe that (Osbon) may presently be suffering from a mental disease or defect rendering him mentally incompetent” to understand the case against him or to assist in his own defense.